Comparing of two photographers

Penelope Umbrico and Beatric Helg are two female photographers I looked at the very beginning stage of my research for Photography unit. They both construct their images but in a completely different way. They both make a kind of statement by using photography but in different forms and methods.

Penelope Umbrico uses found images on search engines and pictures sharing websites crop the images into the way she wanted, rearrange them to make a large installation. She minimum the importance of the individuals, when they are put together with large number of other individuals, each one becomes one of the large numbers of multiples. Her large installation work raises the awareness that how dramatically increased the use of web-based photo communities. She uses photographs in a completely different way from what we normal do.

Beatric Helg uses found objects especially industrial materials to construct an image as a stage set. She uses a lot of rusted raw and hard feeling materials such as metal and glass as well as geometric shapes. Let lights shine from a certain direction and onto certain parts of the objects, space and perspective created. She transforms the rusted, raw and hard into soft, luminous space. Her photographs feel very still and calm. I feel touched by them.

Penelope Umbrico uses images as a tool to form a large installation while Beatric Helg uses her camera and imagination to create luminous spaces and abstracted images. They both use photography as an art form to make their voice.

fire

A lot of times, slowing down make us see more and think more.  But most of times, people forget about this. We are busing making plans for life, trying to do more, keep going forward. We could have missed a lot of beautiful things and  precious moments.

I made a short video when my husband was cooking at the weekend. I used fast mode, normal mode and slow mode to video the fire. It was quite amazing when you see the fire under slow mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhHdG8tMsDA&feature=youtu.be

Snow

Last Friday, it took me two and half hours to get to Hawick from Galashiels because of the snow and the road accidents. I was stuck on the road. There were people in the hurry try to take over or find other road but only found out that every road was blocked. I was late to work. But stopping made me see the snow, the trees and the fields. It got darker and darker,  there were rain drops on the front window, some cars including police cars and ambulance  passed by occasionally with their bright lights on. I stopped worrying about the late, used camera on my phone, wanted to catch some moment,:snow, lights, dark, rush, worries.......camera froze every moment and make everything become still. 

Patrick Pochon the light painter

I do not know how famous Patrick Pochon is, but his work is amazing. He sees himself a light painter. He started light painting in 1992 and left other types of photography behind. " To me light painting is an expression of our true selves. It is about the trace we create and leave behind...... It enhances your imagination, wakes up your intuition and reflects who you are and where you are at. It is like a mirror of soul" 

I think it is another art form and like all other traditional art forms, artists found themselves through it and express themselves through it. The above images were created by a kind of free movement with a liteblade tool in his hand. It is done in completely darkness with the camera setting to long exposure. He call it light painting kata. (http://www.patrickthelightpainter.com/art/) There are videos on his website.

He has quite a few series of work.

"CAPTURING LUMINOUS THOUGHTS is a series based on the idea that all we think and feel directly influences everything around us. In this case, represented by subtle lights, floating around responding to our signals. "

"The PORTALS AND DIMENSIONS series is an artistic representation of the other layers of reality and their possibilities."

The RADIANT LIGHT series is questioning what we can’t see, from the inner to the outer world, like the shape of sounds, all sorts of energies, vibrations or feelings or even the photons our bodies emit. What does it all look like?

THE LIGHT PAINTING SCULPTURES series demonstrates the four dimensions of painting with light, giving it sculptural qualities.

The tools he uses are quite expensive. I don's think I can try something like this. But it is always good to see something you never know before. Light is normally what we see in our daily life. But scientifically most people know very little about light. When I did my experiment of photographing light, I got a big surprise when I saw the images. Camera make us see something which our eyes won't be able to see. The speed of light is the fastest speed human ever know so far. Camera may only capture the very tiny trace it left but big enough to give everybody a "Wow".  Patrick said light is a language as old as universe. The art of light painting has depth and meaning beyond we now understand about life and reality. This is maybe true. I believe he must found himself in this art form and there are so many things which are unknown to human beings. 

Photographs from London visit

Had to go to London, I took my camera though. I thought it would be a good opportunity to take some street photographs. I was with my friend all the time. There was not much time to think when took photographs.  A lot of them were just snaps but I did think and tried to decide what I want in my view founder.
Edited them on computer. I found I am getting much better with setting my exposure. I did not need to adjust exposure much on computer. Here are some of them.

I wanted to photo the building, but when I edited it. I noticed these two cyclists. So I cropped out a lot and made these two cyclists became the first thing you will see. I like the combination, people walking, classic London taxi and cyclists on the busy London road. Different life in the busy city! 

Really like this one, but I only got half of the tower in. Such a shame. And if the man could be further away, it would be better. That is the thing with street photography. Timing is very import. Decision needs to be made quickly sometimes and mean while you need to see if you have everything you want in you view finder. 

I saw the direction in this photograph when I photoed it. thought it would be a good photograph. But it was in the evening and  it was getting dark. Although I adjusted a few different exposures, i still did get the light I wanted and did not create the contrast I wanted. 

 

cropped out the upper part

played on photoshop but forgot what I did. some who got this and quite like it

original photo

cropped the upper part of the above

remembered Sam's window photograph, so I duplicated it and put them together on photoshop. 

Always want to do something with colours

Every time I was doing research on Photography, colour always attract my attention and make me look. I tried to think what I can do with colours. Had different ideas, tried to photograph coloured papers , coloured paint, using coloured lights. None of them really worked.

I tried to combine colour and my light photographs. Thought then I can put them together in
someway as a set.

 

Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) was an American photographer best known for her black and white photography of New York City architecture. Abbott first became involved with photography in 1923,when Man Ray hired her as a darkroom assistant.

Abbott's subjects were people in the artistic and literary world and others just passing through the city. She started her New York project in 1929 and worked on the project independently for six years.

These photographs are street sense of New York city at that time. They are very strong images I think. There are people, buildings of he city where they live and their daily activities which showing you an urban life. They are street photographs as well as documentaries. The sense in the photographs are very clear and still. I like her style. 

These two photographs are windows, very interesting composition, Curved the lines and straight lines in perspective. The second one,the shutters on the windows are like the letters on the posters. 

Building in contrast. I especially like there is a man walking and a car passing by. 

This one brought the gun to a very close viewpoint, pointing to the building. I don's know what Abbott wanted to say. To me, I think the photograph brought the eye right in front of the viewer's eye. You see it is form, you see the power and the danger of it. 

Bird eye view, very interesting, especially the second one, the city view is from a nice shape of metal frame. 

Looking up viewpoint, 

I really like this one, such a good viewpoint, it is so beautiful. 

Really like this one too. the building, the bus and people came together and became one.

Information I found on Wikipedia says "Changing New York" was primarily a sociological study within modern aesthetic practices. It suggests a vital interaction between three aspects of urban life: the diverse people of the city, the place they live, work and play, their daily activities. It was intended to make people realize that  their environment was a consequence of their collective behavior ( and vice versa). Abbott chose her camera angles and lenses to create compositions that either stabilized a subject or destabilized it. 

Abbott also did portraits. Here are a few examples. I found the first one is very interesting. It is two people. I am guessing it was created by using long shutter speed in the dark. I have try it. 

Abbott also did science photography for many year.  I only looked through them in the morning. Now when i am reading the titles, I suddenly feel they are so amazing. I liked the artistic abstract form when I saw them. But now they are make sense. It is so amazing what photography can do in this field.  They are showing people the dry theory in this beautiful art format and make everything so meaningful. 

Soap Bubbles 1945-6

Light through Prism 1958-61

Bouncing Ball Time Exposure 1958-61

Strobe Photography of a Bouncing Ball 1958-61

Time Exposure of a Bouncing Ball 1958-61

 

Falling Balls f Unequal Mass 1958-61